What’s Your Dumbest Money Mistake Lately? (Tell us For a Chance at $100!)

It’s that time again to give out another $100 in cash to one of you lucky Budgets Are Sexiers :) Rachel from AdultingByDesign.com won last month’s Benjamin and ended up using it to pay off some of her debt (smart woman!). Now, maybe it’s your time to snatch up the $$$?

And this month’s question? It was inspired by a couple stupid moves I just made, and thought it would help me feel better hearing what YOU all failed on too, haha… Misery loves company, right?:)

Here’s the question:

What was the dumbest thing you’ve done with money lately?

Here are the two things I just did:

I got a $40 speeding ticket driving home yesterday (!!). Which are always the worst because not only do you get nothing out of spending the money, but then you also can’t blame anyone else for it! ;)

I found a brand new cell phone case in my drawer I thought I had returned 6 months ago :( Meaning, I effectively paid double for the 2nd case I picked up which I ended up liking better, ugh.

So I’m out $50.00 for basically nothing to show for it…

But maybe you have me beat?? :)

Tell us your fails in the comments below, and one of you will be awarded with $100 to help recoup your losses! Just make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter as we’ll be checking our list before pulling the winner.

We’ll announce who it is on this same blog post one week from today.

Good luck! And if you haven’t done anything stupid lately, then just click away now as this giveaway isn’t for you, you goody two shoes!

UPDATE: Congrats to Daniel for winning!! I literally had to randomly pick a winner before reading all of these so I keep it fair to everyone, because some of your stories – WOW. Just goes to show we all make mistakes!! And since we’re all on $$$ blog right now at least shows we’re working towards not making them again :) Thanks for participating everyone – will see you again in a month for our next giveaway.

*****PS: Ever wonder where “goody two shoes” originated from? Per the internet: “The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is a children’s story published by John Newbery in London in 1765… A variation of the Cinderella story, the fable tells of Goody Two-Shoes, the nickname of a poor orphan girl named Margery Meanwell, who goes through life with only one shoe. When a rich gentleman gives her a complete pair, she is so happy that she tells everyone that she has “two shoes”. Later, Margery becomes a teacher and marries a rich widower. This earning of wealth serves as proof that her virtuousness has been rewarded, a popular theme in children’s literature of the era.”

(Though in the case of this giveaway, your virtuousness is not rewarded ;))

What’s Your Dumbest Money Mistake Lately? (Tell us For a Chance at $100!) was last modified: May 15th, 2017 by J. Money

I rented a movie and returned it the next day. Then got a call that the DVD wasn’t in the case. It was still in my player! Got hit with a $6 late fee! I was so mad at myself. Makes me feel a little better seeing other people make mistakes too!!

My sister convinced me to put some serious money into a gift for my parents: a new set of garden chairs plus table. This set was to be all the rage, made of sturdy wood, and would last for years. It’s roughly one year later now, mold and green stuff are growing on the wood, and one of the legs has been wobly since autumn. Also, the chairs have some plastic on them and every time I sit down in one of them, I get a small electrostatic shock. This year I’m buying them a book.

I paid an overdraft fee because I overdrew my checking account by $.97. I had all of our bills covered with a cushion of a few hundred dollars, but I forgot about some checks I wrote months ago that hadn’t been deposited yet. Ninety seven cents!

If this doesn’t happen very often and you have the money to cover it, try asking your bank for a refund. I had a cheque get deposited 6 months later that I had totally forgotten about but I did have the money in my savings. Since I was usually a good customer and this was the first time, they refunded the fee. Worth a try!

So this is actually a battle I’ve been having for the past several months. I procrastinated asking for a raise when I was given new tasks at work. I was told they would just be very temporary re-assignments but they don’t look like they are going anywhere. By the time I realize that I was permanently stuck with them our manager announced that she was leaving and the new guy just looked at me like I was crazy and told me “I can’t give a raise based on things that happened in the past. But I’m sure we can find new opportunities for you to take on that I might be able to give a raise for. Shall we target about 6 months from now?”

Should have been a hard ass with my old manager and refused the new tasks without guarantee of an incentive cause now it’s just become my standard workload that they expect from me.

I just discovered this morning that I lost about $150 in gift cards. One of them was $100 at a restaurant that is expensive. Pretty sure I accidentally tossed them when cleaning out and changing purses last weekend. The trash has already gone out. Technically they were gifts to me, but still like cash to me. :( I feel so stupid!!

My wife graduated with a masters degree in marriage and family therapy with $45,000 in student loan debt, $15,000 of which is at 8.5% interest. Then I decided to go to school and get a PhD, leaving with $25,000 in student loans at 5% interest. If I was smart I would have taken out an extra $15,000 at 5% to pay off my wife’s loan at 8.5%. Now we’re stuck with the higher interest rate until we pay it off. This mistake has already cost us hundreds of dollars in interest, and will continue to do so for years to come. Awesome!

I somehow changed my debit card transaction plan on my own online a few months back, which went from unlimited to 10 a month. I was charged about $50 a month for debit card use and it took me five months to notice (I know…) I only noticed on the 5th month because that extra $50 charge sent my checking account below $0 and I was charged an extra $50 by the bank to cover my butt when money from a bill was withdrawn. All and all my rookie mistake cost me $300….:-(

I was a member of the settlement class in the Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster class action lawsuit and received vouchers for tickets and discounts. While it’s bad enough that I’ll probably never get to use those free ticket vouchers (see here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/business/media/ticketmaster-lawsuit-vouchers.html?_r=0), I neglected to use the discount vouchers ($30 total value) on any of three recent purchases (Calgary Flames in Nashville, Miami Marlins in Seattle, and Boston Red Sox in Toronto). It’s rare that I buy tickets through Ticketmaster (I usually opt to go directly to the box office to avoid the fees), but these purchases were for out-of-town events. I asked Ticketmaster about getting those vouchers retroactively applied to those recent purchases, and they, of course, “couldn’t” do it (surprised?). Now, I either need to accept that I essentially paid an extra $30 for those tickets or get sucked into buying more tickets from Ticketmaster to use the discount.

I was also a part of that lawsuit, haven’t used whatever we’re supposed to have gotten, and am planning to go to a baseball game with friends next month. I usually go for the box office, but thanks for making me aware that I can at least attempt to use this!

I bought 2 books from Amazon someone recommended without reading what they were about. I started one and hated it just 2 chapters in and the other sounds horrible. Now I have to pay return shipping and I hate paying for shipping!

Transitioning an account from Edward jones to vanguard and had the broker at EJ do it since his admins told me it was no charge and I’d only pay the $95 transfer fee. Found out he charged roughly $425 in commissions to sell the assets into cash after checking the trade confirmations, which would have cost me 1/3 of that if I had transferred in kind and done it myself. Oof but learning lesson for myself.

This is really clumsiness more than a mistake. Yesterday I took the kids to buy gifts for all their teachers (teacher appreciation week). They picked out several jumbo fancy cupcakes and other treats. This is not stuff I would normally spend money on for us, but the teachers certainly deserve a treat. I managed to get them all the way home, then dropped them as I was getting out of the car. All the fancy frosting and decoration was ruined. I had to go right back to the store and repurchase all of them again.

I had a small filling fall out of my tooth. I made a mental note to schedule a dentist visit but forgot. Cue about 4 months later and during my regular checkup my dentist found the hole with a brand new cavity inside. I was lucky I didn’t need a root canal but had to pay $200+.

Got caught up in a 0% credit card offer…….Got the card because I am in process of finishing my basement myself, thought it would be good to have some float for a year. Have till November to pay it off BUT I’m not sure how that’s going to happen. Got hit with a massive tax bill that really set me back to the point it doubtful even if I don’t spend another dime on it that I can pay off what I owe by November. Worst thing is the basement is only about 30% done and I cant afford to buy anything more for it at this time. Should have trusted my gut and not bought anything till I had the cash in hand. Good lesson about emergency funds though, which prior to this I was 100% against.

Bought 2 pair of exact same pants, tried on one pair to make sure they fit. Took directly to be altered (due to my tiny stature) and put on a pair to be fitted. Tailor said that since they were the same pant I didn’t need to try other one on. Got home, wore first pair…Perfect! 2 days later put on 2nd pair and they are 2 sizes two big! The size on the hanger didn’t match the actual size of the pant. Because I did not double check, I lost $45 on the actual pants and an additional $15 on alterations which now prohibit me from returning said pants! Grrrrrrr…stupid move.

My wife and I each got IPhone 7s at the end of last year on a contract costing several hundred dollars a month. After discovering your site I learned what a waste this is (should be saving for retirement with that money!) and now looking at getting out; with the caveat of having to pay off the rest of the handset cost and cancellation fees.

Oh..where do I even begin. Ugh..how about I pay $1.00 to park daily at the train station. You have to put change into a slot that has the parking numbers… I put $1.00 in 319 instead of 318 so I got a $10.00 ticket. I forgot to pay it.. so that ticket turned into a $20.00 ticket. I was pissed… I hate to waste money..especially when I really did pay to park that day :( Whoa is me :(

I bought a couple of new great jeans. (which I rarely buy, I rarely buy clothes) They were very expensive but it was time.
Then I started training thai-boxing……..
And now 3 months later I can’t fit my jeans..
My thighs have grown too big.
So stupid. So I bought a third pair just now an hour ago..

My wife had to visit the dermatologist. She discovered after the visit was done that they didn’t accept our insurance. $1,240 for the visit later, I’m wondering why we didn’t check first! Every little bit counts with a family of five on a single income! ;)

This is VERY painful and embarrassing to admit but it should make everyone else feel better about their mistakes. In the never-ending quest to fight aging, I got sucked in by a cosmetic doctor and his aestheticians. I spent almost $9K last summer on treatments that also required multiple 3.5 hour trips. When something didn’t work, he convinced it was something I did wrong, so I did it again. I got no positive results from any of it. In fact, it made some things worse.

UGGHH! Library fines. I try to be good and get movies for the kids through the local library. Well, over Christmas vacation we forgot to return 6 of them on time (and then lost another one). At almost $90 later, we are working on our library organization !

You should check with your library about a program they may have – my library system lets you and your family come into the library and sit and read (together or alone) and they take off something like $5/hour from your fines. Its to encourage families not to stop using the library if they forget to return some books once a while! Called something like “Read Down Your Fines”. http://lexpublib.org/read-your-fines

Last year I purchased a ticket to Coachella because I thought I could resell it for double its value, only I used a credit card with a balance and it accrued interest on the purchase for almost a whole year and I recently sold it for roughly the face value. :(

I rented an apartment when I could have stayed with family and saved money. The apartment was supposed to be smoke-free, but someone is breaking that rule, as cigarette smoke is constantly filtering into my apartment. Now I have to break the lease and move again. :(

I am actively trying to pay down debt as a single parent with a massive amount of student loan debt and credit card debt lingering from when my daughter was first born. That isn’t the mistake. We are in a very minimal spending time to prioritize bringing down debt, so every dollar counts. Last week I remembered a prepaid cash card from a previous job. My wallet was stolen months ago and I simply forgot about that card. The money is mine, but for the past 8 minutes months it’s been losing $7 per month in fees. Mild annoyance in the long term but was frustrated with myself and losing around $60 through fees. And currently I’m at a tire place crossing my fingers all I need are new tires and nothing more expensive since I put it off so long!

I delayed a $120 repair to the car because I’m two months from killing my (originally six-figure!) student loans and wanted to throw every penny at them. The three-month delay turned a $120 low-key problem into a $2,100 urgent problem. Now I’m three months away.

I got a $35 parking ticket for parking in the street in front of my boyfriend’s house overnight. Fortunately, this prompted him to give me one of his extra residential parking permits, so now I can park there worry-free! :)

Later this month I am in a wedding. I ordered my dress, purposely a smaller size, thinking this would motivate me to lose weight. Well, that was stupid to think I could lose that much in a short time frame. So I had to get a second dress that actually fits. So angry at myself for wasting money. The dress is non refundable and I am out $150.

We were on vacation in France, having a fabulous time. Near the Eiffel Tower we saw a crowd watching a guy playing the “shell game” with his onlookers with a ball and a few cups. We stood around watching for a minute and I see a couple of people in the crowd win 10 Euros, 20 Euros, 50 Euros. I’m not a gambler but this guy was giving away free money! I can do this!! (Note: we had been warned not to fall for these scams, but the warning left out the part where we would see the con-man’s friends win money…) You can guess where it ended, and it wasn’t happily. A big stack of Euros later — probably half our remaining cash — and the guys packed up and ran away with our money. Whoops.

Still had a great trip, but THAT is the dumbest thing I did with money.

I recently went shopping at the local grocery store and intended to go to Costco over the weekend, but picked up a few boxes of the store brand pasta just in case I needed to cook sooner than I could get that from Costco (which is farther away). I then ended up working it out with my schedule to get to Costco a couple days later, and picked up an 8 pack (of the brand name stuff) for $9, and didn’t even blink an eye, assuming it was definitely cheaper than what I had bought before. I then proceeded to return the two boxes to the local grocery store and only after I did so, realized that they were 67 cents each – cheaper than the Costco multi pack. Well, CRAP! I felt real dumb for falling for the assumption of Costco-is-best :( Good to know for next time, but now I have to finish 7 more boxes of pasta first…
I really wish some sort of price comparison app or website existed so I could check and wouldn’t make these mistakes.

I recently moved out of my parent’s house and into my new place. My parents generously gave me the car I’ve been driving since I was 16 (a 2007 Mercury Mariner). Being the responsible adult that I am, I did not think to ask if there was anything that needed to be done on a yearly basis. $108.00 later, I now have to pay a ticket for having expired tabs! The police officer caught my car while it was parked outside my house….definitely a money mistake easily avoidable.

My husband and I have too much money just sitting in separate savings accounts from when we were single, and haven’t yet gotten around to finding where to invest…… procrastination. We got married in October but didn’t really start the financial merging of checking accounts until January (after my last name changes had gone through), and now we’re still finalizing the savings account and investment stuff. We definitely should get more money invested.

I am 27 and my wife is 25. We thought we would save some money by keeping my wife on her parents insurance for the next few months. We had a baby coming and had been properly budgeting several thousand dollars in case of cost overruns.

I work for a hospital and receive cheaper care if I go to a facility in my own system. My wife’s insurance did not receive preferential financial treatment from my hospital system and vice versa.

We made the assumption that everything associated with the delivery would be covered by her insurance. We were rudely surprised when my son had to stay an extra night in the hospital. It was not my wife who was billed but my son. My son is on my insurance so that meant I was billed.

I knew it would not be cheap because my insurance would consider it out of network. I spent a month pulling my hair out as I went online everyday to check the status of the $10,000 charge for my son’s extra day in the hospital. In the end the amount was less than $2000 but we probably wouldn’t have had to pay it if my wife and I shared the same insurance.

My dog’s medication was on a monthly basis is very expensive, so it keeps going to my credit card where it keeps getting paid little by little. I had received a type of coupon in the mail for a one time use for prescription. I wasn’t quite sure of what it was exactly, and too embarrassed to ask the pharmacist, I didn’t use it. Did a little research when I got home, turns out it could have saved me $10 on the prescription. Now, it’s expired and I can no longer use it! I know $10 isn’t a lot to some, but for me, that could have purchased a half a tank of gas!

It’s not all that recent, but it’s still sitting there. A few years ago for Mother’s Day, my husband started asking me what I wanted, and jokingly I showed him a PPV bike on craigslist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Powered_Vehicle He asked me “Would you really like it?” $250 later we had a huge, rough condition project bike strung up in the rafters of our shed for 2 years. We just got it down and got the gears straightened out, but it needs more repairs before we can even get rid of it. I’m sick of the space it takes up. At least now I’m not hitting my head on it every time I get out the good bike, but it’s tarped under my deck. (Anyone in the Pennsylvania/Maryland area want a neat parade vehicle project? All the parts are there. Selling cheap!)

My friend and I are trying to start a nonprofit to open a school in rural Haiti. We need to become incorporated and eventually a 501c3 in order to open an account and cash the funds raised so far, as well as to allow donors to write the donations off on their taxes. We went with a incorporation company I didn’t initially didn’t like because of their hard sell. Things are happening that are furthering my unease, although I think we will get what we need in the end. Should’ve gone with my initial gut instead of allowing myself to get talked in. Needless to say, the $100 will be going to this if I am so fortunate as to get it.

Oh, parking meters, how I loathe thee. I missed the meter by 3 minutes and already got a ticket and the ticket was time stamped a minute earlier than my arrival to the car! If only I walked just a tad bit faster to get back to the car….

I bought clothes online. This is almost always a mistake for me because they NEVER fit/look good and I always end up returning them and regretting the whole thing. Then, I decided that paying for return shipping through the retailer was a scam to cost me extra money, so I paid for the shipping on my own. And it was definitely more expensive than if I had just paid the flat rate from the retailer. All in all, I lost money and had absolutely nothing to show for it. =(

When i was on vacation in Turkey…instead of taking out one lump sum of money, I took out like 5 different sums of money over the course of a few days….with a $5 dollar international withdrawal fees….I ended up spending/Wasting $50 dollars in transaction withdrawal fees that could have been completely avoided had I withdrew one large amount rather than 5 or 6 smaller amounts.

I too got a speeding ticket ($90), but I wasn’t actually speeding. I’m guessing since it was the last day of the month the cops needed to meet their quota, and what better way than to try to swindle someone with an out of state license plate into a ticket. I’m a student living 3 miles from the place I got pulled over. The limit is 35 (I drive by the sign every day), but the cop INSISTED it was 30mph and that I was going 40 (my digital spedometer said 36). Either way the cop told me to just “pay the ticket and avoid the hassle of going to court since I have out of state license plates.” This comment made me think he was full of $h!t!

I will be going to court to get it dismissed, but unfortunately I now have to pay $35 to get my clean driving record (since I’m out of state) and then pay another $30 fine to get the charges dropped based on my clean driving record (the likelihood of fighting and winning a minor dispute is low from what I hear, better just to pay the fine and not have it potentially hit insurance). At least I won’t have to pay the full $90!

I booked a very expensive golf trip with a bunch of girlfriends and when we all showed up at the airport with our bags and clubs, it turned out I had booked my flight for the following day. It was stay behind and lose out on playing one of the courses and a night in the hotel (already all paid for of course!) – or pay the change fee and fly that day…. $879 later, I was on the plane and trying to enjoy myself :(

When we moved into our house two years ago we needed to buy a lawn mower. So we bought a cheap-ish one from Walmart, used it, and then left it outside (covered, but we don’t have a garage or shed) for the winter. Turns out that you actually have to prepare the lawn mower for storage over the winter or otherwise it won’t work. It would have cost the same or more to fix it over buying a new one, so we bought the same kind the next year. We prepared it for winter this time and brought it inside. Last week we got it out and it wouldn’t start. We were facing a fine from the city for unmowed lawn so we were forced to buy a new one AGAIN. This time we went with a push mower-a little more work but it will DEFINITELY survive the winter.

My wife called a plumber to fix something that I was perfectly capable of doing, and had all of the tools to do. I had also already bought the materials I needed, so the plumber was grateful he didn’t have to come back after picking stuff up. It did take him probably a quarter of the time it would have taken me, but that was a good $115 spent last week. Time is harder to find than money sometimes, and my lack of response to my wife’s repeated requests made her make the call. My fault definitely, but finding 2-3 hours to do projects at times is hard.

We’re spending $310 each month, plus another $95 in insurance, for a motorcycle payment. I hate car payments, but accepted it when my fiance wanted to buy a 5-year-old motorcycle with a loan.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and he’s had two heart attacks and multiple surgeries. Needless to say, he hasn’t been on the motorcycle since 2015…but still won’t let go enough to sell it. I know it’s hard to accept our own limitations, but it’s financially stupid! So there it sits, costing $400+ a month, for no reason.

My 40th birthday was last week and all I wanted was a what I was calling a “Redneck Birthday”. I wanted 40oz bottles of beer, Beef Jerky and Scratch Off Lotto tickets. I was given one $20 ticket that won me $50 bucks and I bought one $20 ticket that was a loser. I used my $50 winnings for fun at a Main St Festival and lunch money. I know buying lotto tickets is dumb but if was a fun birthday.

My husband got convince that penny stocks would be a good idea “gamble”, well it turned out not such a great idea, 1500 later, ugh! Then, believe it or we just found out that we have a looming surprise bill to deal with a radon issue in the house, for guess how much, 1500. Karma sucks…

Compounded mistakes that will cost me at least a grand.
Was waiting on a phone call from a contractor so when an unknown number called, I answered. Turned out to be a sales pitch for a magazine subscription but it took about 20 min to figure that out, I was just highly amused trying to figure out what they were trying to sell that I kept on the phone. Suddenly, it seems that I actually signed up for the magazines and they were asking for my credit card info. Stunned, I figured, what the hell, and signed up. After that, I got lots more calls confirming things which was annoying but turned really annoying when I saw 2 separate charges charges on my credit card! After talking to a couple reps, I realized one of those calls that I thought was a confirmation of information was actually a separate company! I had signed up for 2 magazine subscriptions I didn’t need or want! *major facepalm* I cancelled one (with a 250$ stupid tax) and had the other delivered to the local fire station so at least it could be appreciated. Still…not my finest moment…

My dumbest money mistake recently was also pretty fun, so I guess I’m okay with it. My partner and I went to Las Vegas for a convention (we’re not usually gamblers at all!) and ended up playing hooky on the last day and hanging out at the casinos. Fortunately, I had given myself an allowance of around $100 to gamble away and I managed to stay within that amount. I won nothing, so it was a good reminder that gambling usually doesn’t pay, and hiking is always a better idea. :)

I received a raise this week. Yay! But… we had the opportunity before our raises to talk up our accomplishments, skills, and contributions to the company and I didn’t use that opportunity to the fullest because I was “busy” with other projects/deadlines. We usually get a standard % raise throughout the company so I thought it was just corporate feel good stuff BUT this year it was based on what we bring to the table. While I got a nice raise, I’m kicking myself for what might have been! Doh!

I ordered a dress for an event and when it came I felt I wanted to try the next size just to see the difference in how it fit so I ordered another. The first one ended up being fine but I neglected to send the other one back in time so essentially paid for a dress that I didn’t need. :( I can resell it or donate but still at a loss to what I originally paid.

I have been parking in the train’s parking garage without paying, because one day when I was in a rush, and the Pay by Phone app wasn’t working, I didn’t get a ticket. This became a bad habit for me everytime I drove to the train station. One day, I was in a HUGE rush, I was so rushed that I parked over a line without realizing. This caused me 2 parking tickets, one for parking over the line and another one for not paying for parking. This cost a total of $50. On top of that, when I went to pay my parking ticket, I had another one that I totally forgot about, it was overdue by 2 days! I had to pay over $100 in parking tickets due to my air-headedness. D:

I made a rookie traveler’s mistake. I didn’t check the visa entry requirement for Brazil. Apparently, as a US citizen, you need one. The ticket was worth $598. Thankfully, I still have the value of the ticket plus an extra $85 fee if I book a trip within the next year. But I did have to dish out some prepaid costs for my lodging arrangements (~$100). AND I still had a good vacation, as I sandwiched the trip between staying with friends in Colombia so I just stayed in Colombia the entire time.

Weeelllllll…… I managed to pay for one of those stupid Redbox movies because my wonderful kid lost it somewhere. (or so I thought) Come to find out he mailed it into NETFLIX. I had just recently decided to do the Netflix mailing system since I would always forget to take the redbox back into town. And I would end up paying anywhere from $4-$6 anyway because we would forget it or watch it again. We normally just stream netflix with our phones on the TV. We live in the country and to go to “town” its about 40 miles round trip. So I never go out of my way just to take a movie back. So I thought I was saving the hassle and extra $ by switching to Netflix mailing system the one that was so popular in 2007.. Yeah I’ve had that account for 10 years now. My husband couldn’t wait to see a movie so he got the redbox + kid mails it in to Netflix + I email because they hadn’t sent my new movie on my queue = redbox fees until the movies paid for & no netflix new movie for last weekends rainy weekend.

It wasn’t SUPER lately, but when a former employer folded the company I cashed out my 401k to pay off credit card debt. HORRIBLE decision for many reasons (including owing taxes the following year). oy.

When you’re frugal, it seems like the smallest things can drive you the most crazy. I started a new savings account recently. Apparently they charge $2 for paper statements! Ack! Now my $50 savings is now at $48…its driving me nuts every time I see it! Small…but stupid.

I lend money many times to my family to help them, and I always have hard time getting it back. Same mistake over and over again. As of few days ago, I lend $1000 on my credit card for school fees to a member of my family who already owes me 2k.

I had to borrow money from a friend once, and I wrote up a contract with a simple payment schedule and a really low interest rate and I had us both sign it. You might want to think about it as either a gift, or try to have a simple contract signed. Good luck!

So for over a year I’ve been wanting to add power steering to my project car that I race (huge expensive project).

So I had all the parts together and got started 2 weeks ago at a friends house. So far we have over 4 days (30 hours) fighting and clawing and taking the car more apart just to add the power steering. We have had to change the engine mounts ($120 extra) and now getting rid of the headers to fix other issues while I have it all apart and costing me about an additional $500 on top of the $300 I had already spent on doing the power steering conversion. Wish me luck, I’m going back tonight and plan on needing about 3 more nights of labor to fix it (luckily that’s free because we are doing the work ourselves… or is it!? I could be making money vs spending time and money on it!)

The only positive is the car will be awesome when I’m done as I’m fixing 3 major issues (adding power steering, fixing leaky crappy exhaust leaks that stink and make it loud. The new OEM Corvette manifolds will fit better and it’ll stop melting spark plug wires (saving me more money down the road)

You might call me car crazy but we do enjoy a little bit of this craziness! It just sucks when you plan on something that wont cost you much more money because you think you have all the stuff and then end up spending $500+

I just went to the dentist today and remembered that I’d run out of the tablets I use to clean my retainer. I asked them to get another box for me. The bill for a 36 tablet box was $71.99. I didn’t know that until I was exiting and paying the bill. I paid it. Then, I price-checked it on Amazon—where you can buy the exact same product, but get 96 tablets for 14.99. That’s the equivalent of spending $192 at the dentist for what I could buy on amazon for $15. I feel so dumb.

I saw a nice used bike on Craigslist so I drove across town to check it out. It was too big and the guy had another one for sale. This one wasn’t in a good shape. The brakes aren’t good and the gear shifters aren’t working well. He asked for $165 and I paid… Ack! I probably should have walked away from that one.

You might have a good bike after all! I don’t want to make presumptions on your bike-evaluating ability, but brake pads are like $10 and cables (which might be all your shifters need to work nicely again) are like $10-$15. See if you have a bike cooperative in your city, they’ll be happy to show you how to clean it up a little bit and give it some lube and change the cables and housings.

I moved into a two-bedroom apartment by myself about five months ago, intending to find a roommate fast. I pretty much gave up on that after the first month, due to a lack of free time to track one down. Fast-forward to today, and I’ve paid rent for two people the whole time. Will be changing my living situation soon.

Eating out is the worst budget suck! With the warmer weather I know I’m going to struggle with wanting to get froyo and Dairy Queen every night. Even if I get ice cream and toppings for home it’s just not the same!

I somehow managed to lose my commuter pass for May. It gets mailed to my house and while I remember taking it out of the mailbox, I can’t seem to find it. I just know that once I pull the +$200 trigger to buy a new one I will find it tucked between Little Blue Truck and the Gruffalo… Ahh #toddlerlife

Most recent money mistake I have made was leaving a job 1 month too early. I was offered a position with a new company about 5 weeks prior to my 5 year anniversary. Employer contributions were fully vested after 5 years. I enthusiastically took the new position because of my complete burnout and lack of motivation for the original company. i was still 80% vested on employer contributions and was only giving up 20% (about $3,200) so it could have been worse but that definitely isn’t chump change. In hind sight, I should have negotiated with my new employer to start a few weeks later and put up with the BS a little longer. At the time, I wanted out of there as quick as possible and was excited to have the offer that I had.

Got married to my beautiful wife in 2015 and being the savy personal finance guy for our household with my dozens of spreadsheets, I adjusted our Fed Tax Withholding status to ‘Married’. 2015 taxes we got money back (yay!), so I didn’t look at 2016 to make sure our withholding would be enough during the year. Last month, I run our taxes and turns out we owe an additional $6000 to the Fed (major gut check and the marriage penalty in action). Luckily, we had it in savings to pay the bill–but finding another $6000 in your budget for the year to pay back your savings is not easy, or telling your wife you made a $6000 mistake.
Suffice it to say for 2017, I have the correct amount being withheld–can’t fool me twice!

I signed up to get a sample of a wrinkle cream for free, only paying shipping. I called and complained when I got charged $5.95 because it was supposed to be free. They assured me it was still free, that was just the shipping fee.
The next month I got charged $95! I called and complained again because the first time I called I had been assured it was a free sample. They said it was a free trial but if I kept it, I had to pay $95. I paid it (because I had no choice) and told myself I had learned a really dumb and expensive lesson.
The next month, I got another jar of the cream in the mail and got charged $95 again! I called to complain again, and they said I hadn’t canceled the subscription. I didn’t know I had subscribed, and nobody told me that on the other calls I had made. LESSON LEARNED! Stupid mistake! Read the fine print! (I still haven’t told my husband)

Yeah, your fault to a degree, but these types of companies also have the system DOWN to trick people out of money. They know very well what they’re doing and choose to make money by scamming people instead of actually earning your patronage the right way :(

It felt like we did nothing but fail last month, haha. Our biggest fail was the unlucky situation of water coming into our newly finished basement because the emergency valve on our sump pump wasn’t open. To top it off, we learned that we didn’t have the proper water damage coverage for our homeowners insurance, and nothing was covered. So a week before our family vacation we had to take EVERYTHING out of the basement, then hire a crew to tear out the new flooring we put in 6 months ago, and pay $2k out of pocket to have them fan and dehumidify our basement to get the water out. So now we’re out $3k (water damage repair, cost of old and new flooring plus some dry wall) all because we didn’t open our emergency valve on for our sump pump and have proper homeowners insurance coverage. Definitely learned our lesson the hard way.

My garage door quit working so I call the vendor listed on the back of the door to fix it at a cost of $475.00.
I completely forgot I had purchased a home warranty that would have fixed the garage door for a total cost of $45.00.
Ops!!!

As two working parents of a two year old, we made the mistake of not fully utilizing our HSA with the arrival of child #2. Let me say, a stiff loss when it came to tax day on our end that we will never make again after incurring over $11,000 in medical expenses in 2016. To compound that issue, part of our income is run through an LLC where commission is a significant portion of overall pay. Talk about a dumb move :0(

I purchased an Amtrak ticket for travel this past Monday. I guess I didn’t spend enough time reading the schedule because when I reached the station, I noticed there was an earlier train leaving in about 10 minutes. To make matters worse, the train for which I had purchased the ticket was already and hour behind schedule so I decided to take the earlier train and had to exchange the ticket to do so and was hit with a $25 fee. I kicked myself all the way home.

Just yesterday I fixed a mistake I know full well not to make and have chided others over the years for making, but somehow I managed to fall into the trap myself. It has been gym ten months and 24 days since I’ve been to the gym that I’m paying for every month! That’s almost $400 wasted! I’ve now canceled my gym membership.

It didn’t even happen out of some desire to make it to the gym; it was just an oversight of allowing a re-occurring bill continue unchecked. I typically do very good about closely watching expenditures and nipping in the bud things like this, but it’s been a particularly busy year and I’ve let some of the details slide. Not watching the credit card closely and seeing that re-occurring charge for something I wasn’t using has now cost me. What’s more frustrating is it’s such a classic waste of money that gyms rely on happening and I’m quite angry at myself for allowing it to happen to me.

I forgot about a gym membership I signed up for. I’ve been losing $30 a month for months and I didn’t realize it! UGH! I’ve been working out on my own instead, so at least I also lost 8 lbs. But I died a little inside when I realized the money I let go for nothing. :\

I coupon mainly at CVS and I have lost $17 worth of CVS Extrabucks!! That’s $17 dollars I could have used at CVS to get household items. Pretty disappointed, next time I will make sure I have a designated place for these rewards so I do not miss out on the extra saves to help me pay off debt. Also in the past I have bought Groupons and forgot to use them… which was dumb.

I’ve made so many! When I got divorced, I got the house, the kids, my vehicle and all the debt. And somehow, I was the one WITHOUT the income! Well, I knew how to fix that, and I went back to school, got a MASTER’s degree, which ended up costing me $50,000 and has NOT changed my income one bit! (My employer says I got the wrong degree, but it’s the same one that my boss has… ugh…) Since then, I THINK I’m doing the right thing, selling my house and cashing in the equity to get out of debt. FINGERS CROSSED!!

1. On Monday I let myself be talked into walking to a food truck with my coworkers where I spent $10 on lunch instead of just eating what I’d brought from home. Not only was it fiscally irresponsible but it also wasn’t as healthy and ruined my post work run (burping hot dogs and fries is not a good run motivator).

2. My ongoing dumb money mistake is not paying my credit card off in full every month as planned. I keep charging stupid stuff to it that I should just be using my debit card or cash to buy.

I purchased a year-long supply of contact lenses directly from the optometrist. Double whammy: 1) It’s much cheaper at Costco or Walgreens ($100+) and 2) If my eyesight changes before then, it could end up being a waste

I repurchased a couple of fitness DVDs that I had previously sold to the Amazon buy back program. When I bought them the second time, t paid eighty percent more to Amazon than they had previously paid me for the same DVDs. It was seriously stupid on my part. I will be more careful with my Kon-Mari purges in the future and will try not to get nostalgic for stuff that I have jettisoned.

Last year I over-contributed to my retirement account by accident. I misread how much contribution room I had and although I realized it about a week later, since it’s a registered account it involved a HUGE amount of paperwork to correct it, and about 20 million steps. It’s been almost a year and it’s still not quite resolved, as I have to pay taxes and fees on the over-contribution amount. And at tax time I had to fork over a bunch more money too, so right now this mistake is costing me over $5,000, and hopefully when everything gets resolved and I get reimbursed those taxes (for an honest mistake!) that number will go down to around $100 (administration costs, fees, etc,). Not to mention my time (so many phone calls, faxes, and paperwork to fill out)! I was just trying to save for retirement!!

I got all excited about a great half-price deal on a resort restaurant in our area that everyone was raving about, so I bought the coupon thinking I had scored a great lake-view dinner date. Turns out I should have read the fine print. The reason it was such a great deal was that it was only good for lunch time, Mondays through Thursdays–and my husband and I both work full time quite a ways from the restaurant.

Yeah… I may or may not have filled up my Amazon shopping cart with all manner of makeup to compare–no really, to compare (I do this all the time). Then I thought I closed the browser… turns out I hit “buy all with one click.” Didn’t even realize what I had done until the first package arrived; yay Amazon Prime and one-day delivery on certain items that are in-stock at the local distribution center.

I guess the good thing is that now I can see the shades in-person, which is so much better than trying to decide if the picture on the screen is true to the actual color? Another silver lining would be a Benny to cover the expense haha! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!

I parked on the wrong side of the street on a street sweeping day and got fined $100 or so. And I was so furious about it that the next day I parked on the other side of the street, out of contempt for the side that got me fined the day before. I didn’t even read the signs and ended up getting fined another $100 since it was that side’s sweeping day! So stupid!!! Always read street signs. ALWAYS.

I somehow spaced out and paid my mortgage twice in one month, resulting in over $300 in overdraft charges when other bill payments hit my now empty account. The good news is I stopped in to my local branch to explain what happened and they were very understanding. They waived all the charges and kindly asked me not to do that again. No worries, lesson learned!

I waited until April 17th to file my taxes, and I cannot file electronically because I cannot find my 2015 AGI ANYWHERE. And I knew I couldn’t find it and could have asked for an IRS transcript at any time but noooo I waited until the last minute and had to snail mail my return. So I get to wait a good month+ to get my $1,700 back, money that is earmarked to pay off an installment loan.

I know I should be ashamed but my latest money mistake was knowing that you should pay yourself and actually doing it. I would pay myself but the amount is so small (which is why I am ashamed) and then all that I pay out everyday to bills, debt, food, child care, etc. I just said …NO MORE. But to be honest it didn’t hit me until I found this website. I have a plan now and I broke it out into 4 stages and I am determined to PAY MYSELF dollars and not scraps of change as I once did. Hey so atleast I learned.

I left my phone on top of my car and drove to work. I heard something fall off and when I realised it was my phone, I just couldn’t believe that I would do something so dumb. I ended up getting a replacement phone through insurance, but I had to pay $200 for that mistake.

I accidentally threw away $1000 worth of savings bonds when I was cleaning out my desk. I only remembered the day after trash day that they were in a stack of papers, many of which needed to be thrown out. I learned a big lesson about being organized and filing important papers… I also still feel sick about it every time I think of it (including right now)!

I had bought a small home that was going to be my retirement home and paid cash for it (from the sale of a previous home), then found out I had terrible next-door neighbors (like they had all-night weekend parties with lots of yelling, bonfires, police, etc). I then traded my home straight across (no cash outlay) for a log cabin on a lake, which was going to be my retirement home. After the cabin was broken into and vandalized two winters in a row, I sold it for $30,000 less than I had paid for the original small home, thereby losing outright $30,000 cash. Ugg! Bad decisions all around!

I received a $50 money order for an Ebay item I sold. I shipped the item out the same day. Somehow the envelope (still containing the money order) went into our “burn” pile & got destroyed in our firepit that night. I asked the buyer if the money order could be traced. You guessed it. Buyer ignored me. Item already shipped so……I ate the loss. GRRRRRR

I forgot to mention another doozie. We bought a home in Nov. Met with the loan officer to review the closing costs. She said the appraisal fee was $500 & my husband immediately handed him our credit card. Our realtor negotiated the seller would pay $5000 closing costs. Got to the closing & the closing agent said “there’s only $4500 of closing costs. Too bad you already paid $500 for the appraisal as that would have been covered by the seller”. UGHHHHHHHH I was ready to hit my husband upside the head after that!

One of my finest dumb money moves: Renting a storage unit. I just couldn’t let go! I was sentimentally attached! That furniture was worth a lot of money!! Well, fast forward 2+ years, and the money I spent on storage would have purchased me 3 of those dining room sets. On top of that…I ended up giving the furniture away.

I cleaned out the fridge and found a lot of disgusting leftovers and old produce. I hate having to throw away food we could have eaten…what a waste! I tend to overbuy produce with good intention but sometimes it’s just goes to waste and there goes all that money :/

I paid a $35 overdraft fee at my local credit union, for a $20 purchase, thinking all was cool since I had over 2 grand in my savings account. But guess what? There’s a miniscule box that must be ticked in order for the CU to ‘borrow’ from.
Yet another EXCELLENT REASON to be a Capital One 360 customer, as they don’t do overdraft fees, They will actually loan you the difference if you slip up.

We were trying to install a low-flow shower head to save on water, and accidentally broke the shower arm off at the wall. Couldn’t fix that, so $75 to our handyman later, we put the original (perfectly acceptable) shower head back on.

I dropped my phone and broke the screen, meaning I had to pay 180$ for a new screen.
I bought a nifty new screen protector to avoid this problem again.
But, I took a week to actually put the new screen protector on.
The day before I planned to put on the protector, I dropped my phone and shattered the screen again! Cannot believe it. Had to pay another 180$.
Between the two new screens plus the protector, I could have just bought a new refurbished phone >.<

Today I took my car to have a few recall items fixed at the dealership and instead of using the free shuttle service to go back to work, I opted to rent a car for $15 (they don’t have loaners).
I didn’t have to leave work all day…

I have a great liking for Etsy and the artists that create their items. For a long time, I’d wanted a particular symbol as a 14K gold pendant, and I ran into one there last month. It had a detail I didn’t like, so the artist was glad to remove the detail for me. Apart from that, the description specified that the entrance for the chain (not a bale, but part of the design itself) would accomodate a certain mm measurement chain, and that a sterling silver chain came with the pendant. I don’t want to wear a silver chain w/a 14K pendant, but can always use silver chains for silver jewelry, and I have a couple of 14K gold chains that are not thick and I felt sure would work. This purchase was just over $300, and the item description said that 14K chains were available but warned that they cost more than the pendant itself.

Guess what? My chains could be double their width and fit the pendant, but the loop/clasp does not fit the entrance on the pendant. My only option is to use a sterling silver chain, because a 14K chain is not in my budget. Pretty sad. The pendant is beautiful, but I can’t use it the way I would like. I also wouldn’t dream of having my existing 14K chains modified, as they are perfect for what they are and I’m going to leave well enough alone. A hundred bucks would give me some consolation.

This is sort of funny, but there’s a particular brand of underwear that I enjoy. They’re not super fancy or sexy or anything like that, and while they’re more expensive than a 3 pack of Jockeys, they’re not super extravagent. I buy $20 Target jeans and mostly wear tshirts, so durable socks and underwear (and a warm winter coat) are probably the most expensive thing in my wardrobe. My favored underwear brand was discontinuing several styles this week, and so I used that as an excuse to buy three pairs. Discounted pairs, but still, I had $0 in my clothes budget and now I have -$65 in my clothes budget. Sigh. I was doing so well at staying in my budget, but I guess i had to slip up sooner or later.

Oh, and I got a traffic ticket from one of those stoplight cameras. So it turns out that that was an expensive fast food dinner that I was on my way to getting.

2 stupid choices made within 1 week! 1. I got groupon vouchers from a class action lawsuit & decided to “buy” a car seat cover package which included front & back seat covers, steering wheel cover & 4 seat belt strap protectors. The steering wheel cover smelled so bad that I donated it (after trying all ways I found on youtube to try to get rid of the smell). Wasteful, but cost me zero…except for cost of using different products to try to get the smell out! I washed the seat covers & seat belt strap protectors hoping for better results. They snagged & now looked used, but I put them in my car anyway because I need them. Every time I put on my seatbelt I smell the smell of wasted money/vouchers…
2. I sold my old car after 13 years of ownership & attachment & was so excited I spontaneously gave 7 family members, who were in my home at the time, $20 each! What was I thinking? I’m trying to pay off debt, not give away $140! Now I’m selling stuff on Offer Up to make up for that poor money choice!! hmmmm ggrrrrr

Went to the paylot at the CA state parks to visit the beach…told my wife, we need to pay at the machine, then parked, walked to the beach and forgot to pay. $76 ticket… only good thing is it goes to the state parks department that I support. :-)

I’m not a huge gamer, but every one in a while I play my PlayStation 4 to pass the time. I’ve been playing Borderlands: The Handsome Collection since November 2015.

Last night, I finally decided to play some different games. Luckily, PS has a streaming game service, PlayStation Now, which allows users to stream a library of over 500 games for a one flat monthly price of $19.99. I figured I’d definitely find a new game to fill my time.

Now, even though my download and upload internet speeds are 85 Mbps and 7 Mbps, respectively, the streaming service was crap. Every game I tried kicked me out. I should have known though, because I experienced the same thing with this same service about four months ago. But, I thought Sony would have fixed the service by now. They did not.

So…got on group chat with Sony and they offered me a “one time goodwill refund” of my $19.99.

Being as how the money didn’t go back to my card, but to my PS account (kind of like store credit) I wanted to use my $19.99 instead of letting it stay “in the cloud.” So, I went on the online store to look for a new downloadable game. After searching the “discount rack”, I saw Metal Gear Solid V at a discount of only $29.99. I quickly purchased it, in anticipation to play a new game.

But, the thing with PS4 downloadable games though, is that you have to wait for them to download. So, I had a bit of time to kill, which I spent looking through more games.

Boom! Suddenly, I came across Mass Effect 3 which was release about 2 months ago. I had to have it as I am a huge fan of the first two versions. I quickly paid yet another $59.99. But again, I had to wait for the download.

With this time, I decided to open up Borderlands again just to “play around” until my downloads were ready. You know what happened? I started a new game with a new character and played for about 4 hours last night without even touching the games I bought.

And now? Because I have a completionist personality, I just have to complete the game I started which will likely take about 80 hours of gameplay (The game is just that addicting and expansive).

All in all, my $19.99 purchased turned into a $78.88 purchase for two games that I won’t play for about another three or four months. ha!

I bought a house in November that would’ve been perfect for my partner and I to grow into (with only my name on the title). We have never lived together before this. Fast forward 6 months and we found we are no good living together and have recently called it quits on the relationship. Now I am stuck with a house too big for myself alone and an ex-bf living in it because he’s being childish and making up excuses why he can’t move out (first reason, he’s going through bankruptcy).

Needless to say, I am experiencing a lot of headaches trying to work through this issue. I may have been able to negate this by having him sign a cohabitation agreement prior to buying the house or rented together before buying. In any case, I’m doing things to fix all this now.

Decided to save 15% or more by switching car insurance. They quoted me a significantly lower rate and I consented to this (better) offer. Right before they charged my first month, they happened to find a speeding ticket from 2.5 years ago which raises the rates to more than my previous provider. I’ve been had.

I just bought a duplex that is three houses outside of an expensive historical district. It’s great for me that it has proximity to this area but isn’t in it because then I don’t have to comply with all of the historical guidelines like cray-cray expensive custom windows. But the appraisal was a problem because the appraiser refused to use any comps that were in this better area. I (nicely) fought with him and won/lost by having him come back out to reinspect. That set me back $150 for an extra visit, for him to see what was there all along…

I paid $450 for an inspection of my first rental property purchase only to learn that next day that my insurance company (USAA) offers free inspections on new purchases you insure from them! I could have saved my $450!

LOL – definitely have a wors one. Got into a stock IPO – 100 shares at $1500 ($15/share). It went all the way up to $185/share. So if…i would have sold, I would have been at $18,500-1500 for $17,000 profit. Pretty amazing for a $1500 investment, right? And this was within a year or so. Instead i held. And it kept dropping. And i bought more. So at the end of the day, i bought more and stock dropped to below initial price. So i lost money even on my basic investment and missed $17k profit! Total idiot move… :(

I went to the gas station on Friday and put $40 in pump 7. My car was turned off and locked. I figured I had time to go to the bathroom, so I went. Come back out not even 5 minutes later and see my pump is not pumping gas. I go inside to see what the deal is, only to find out that my car is on pump 8. I paid for someone else’s gas and they were nowhere to be seen. Had to shell out another $40 to fill up my tank. Oh well, I could use the good karma

Last Christmas I had a gift exchange party I had to go to but the rules were that you had to bring an item from home. So i grabbed a picture frame that I had gotten for my wedding that I didn’t like. I had joked at the beginning of the party that I was so happy to get it taken off my hands and that anything inside was theirs to keep. When the person who ended up with it opened it up they found $50 inside a card that said Congratulations on Your Wesding day addressed to me and my husband. Doh! Needless to say I always open up everything before I give it/donate it/have a gift exchange. Lesson learned!

I waited until the last minute to renew my BLS certification. I could’ve not only taken the class for free but also been paid for my time. Instead, I paid almost $70 for convenience due to poor planning and procrastination.

My biggest mistake lately was, that I started my own business without actual clients. I suffered for a year, but finally swallowed my pride and finished it because it was just a wallet drain. My savings have largely gone, but at least I have no debt.
Now I have a new plan, I want to launch a blog because many people say it’s the first step to getting rich. $ 100 would be enough to pay the costs for six months, I hope that after all this time the blog will be at least self-sustaining.

I autopaid the cable/internet bill TWICE. Grrr. I would gladly drop cable, but the family would mutiny, and, the bundle with internet is cheaper than cable alone. Plus, they are the only provider in our town. I mistakenly didn’t think I had scheduled the payment & entered it in–during the “one day when you won’t see any transactions as it is going through” (or other such wording). Sigh. At least we now have a credit for NEXT month :(

I departed from my usual pique perfection and flushed $14.80 down the toilet.

How? Well, we noticed an unpaid sewer bill while we were toying with Mint, and I said “No worries, I’ll send in that check now. We still have a few days before it’s due!” Wrote the check, sealed it in the envelope, dropped it in the mail…only to realize a day after the due date that it WASN’T a self-addressed stamped envelope! So now we’re paying a 10% late fee on our sewer bill :(

I recently purchased flights to go to the other side of the world. As I was landing in one city and leaving from another (what the airline industry calls an open jaw ticket), I went to a travel agent who found some flights and I picked a decent one which was priced inline with what I have paid in the past.
When I went home, I wondered, how much would that flight have cost if it was flying to and from the same city? I was interested to see how much more expensive it was by leaving from a different city than the one I landed in.
It was only when I looked closer at the searchbox that I saw you could depart from a different city. I did a search for the same flights on the same dates and the cheapest deal online was about £200 (about $260US) cheaper! Lesson learned!

I live abroad and my passport was expiring. My embassy doesn’t issue passports so I had to go to one of the Scandinavian countries or Helsinki. Trying to cut corners I decided to get an ID card of my resident country instead of a new passport from my home country, saving on the lost days of work travelling to any of the other embassies and the higher cost of a passport.
Double checked if this ID card was valid for travelling in the Schengen area and the lady said yeah sure. Applied, received it the next week and all good.

Now a friend of mine who works at the airport here told me it’s not possible to travel with such an ID card if it states a different nationality than the issuing country.

DARN!

So now I need to get a passport because next month I’m visiting home. Here’s the next chain in Murphy’s Law: only a few cities can issue passport for nationals living abroad. I called all of the ones around my hometown and they are ALL BUSY during the time I’m back home.

So now the only option is to get an emergency document, go to Helsinki, apply for a passport, hope that it gets to the embassy here in time and then travel home.

The biggest stab in my wallet is that I’m also going on a trip to Helsinki just before my flight so I have to go there twice this month for sh*t and giggles.

Aaargh!

In short: cutting corners on something important as a government document made me spend 400EUR extra instead of saving me money. OH MY LORD!

With two small children I feel like I’m constantly making bad money decisions. The latest purchase was a ~$40 turtle that shines stars on the ceiling when its dark. It was for our 2 year old who’s run into some trouble sleeping. We thought it might help at night (in addition to a regular night light). It didn’t work :(

Oh my gosh! Just last week I had one of these dumb money moments that I beat myself up over. I paid a very large credit card bill and accidentally chose the wrong checking account from the payment screen and didn’t realize it until after they tried to pull the payment. So now- we got hit with a fee from the credit card company for bouncing the payment-and got hit from the bank for an nsf fee. I’m insane about tracking my money,so this stupid mistake just hurt… and cost me $75.

I thought I lost my phone charger – I looked ALL OVER my apartment and couldn’t find it, so after mooching off my roommate for a couple days while waiting for it to turn up, I finally gave in and bought another one. Of course, the very same day, I ended up finding my phone charger at the bottom of a bag – but it was too late to cancel my order for the new one, and when I tried to return it, the return shipping cost as much as the charger itself. On the one hand, I have a backup charger now, but I don’t need it and wouldn’t have bought an extra one intentionally!

I had told myself I wasn’t going to charge any more on my credit cards but, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I ended up adding a little bit more to the balance I’m currently trying to pay off. Hence, I could certainly use $100 to throw at that debt and hopefully keep me motivated to continue getting rid of it!

Dumbest mistake was switching to T-mobile from Verizon in DECEMBER 2016 because they said they would buy out my account with Verizon. Also said they would give me a credit of $650 to pay off my phone if I turned my phone over to them and signed up with them. Well somewhere they entered the words “up to” $650. So I paid off my phone with Verizon which was $600, now I’m stuck with T-mobile and they never gave me the “$650”, said I only qualified for $231 and I still haven’t received it. Oh and my bill is about $107 per month. Now Im hoping I can pay off my phone with t-mobile and use it on Virgin mobile, Metro PCS or somewhere but still waiting on my $231.

When my husband and I had our first baby back in 1980, we panicked when the car seat didn’t fit into our (totally paid for) 1976 Honda Civic. We traded it in for a BRAND NEW Subaru station wagon, and besides all the costs associated with a new baby, we were saddled with high interest car payments. If we would have thought things out ahead of time we could have gotten a used vehicle that was big enough for the car seat, and we would have saved thousands of dollars in interest.

I took a short lunch, was going to go home and let the dogs out and cook a turkey burger quickly before I had to go back to work. The dogs had spread the contents of the trashcan all over the place. I cleaned up, let them out, and promptly went to McDonalds instead of cooking. It probably took just as much time to drive over and order as it would have to cook my turkey burger and eat it. Emotional situation that lead to a bad financial decision.

Signed up for a $1 one month trial of Experian to earn Swagbucks, which I can use for Paypal and gift cards. Forgot to cancel the trial in time before they billed me. I’m out about $24, which as a Ph.D. student who is also saving for a wedding, is no small thing…

My dumbest mistake was at age 35 moving from the state Texas and requesting my 10 years from the Texas Teachers Retirement Plan which was about $10,000. Instead of transferring the money into the Florida Retirement Plan for Teachers I deposited the money in our bank. The following year I was taxed half of money by the IRS. What a Big Mistake!

First of all, I think that many “dumb money mistakes” are just learning experiences in disguise, if you keep calm and learn from them Often, these help avoid more costly mistakes in the future, or help someone else by warning them. Whenever I make some sort of mistake, I think, “Well, that was just a $50 education” or however much it was!
From learning about buying penny stocks at “Limit” vs “Market” price, to learning about buying only the things I really need, rather than things that are “too good a deal to pass up,” all these small money mistakes have made me into a more thoughtful money manager, at home and work!

I go for a motorcycle ride and decide to do 100 mph. Got up to 100 mph without any problems, but as soon as I rolled off the throttle the bike developed a hellish wobble that I couldn’t ride out of. We went down about 80 mph.

I got the bike up and rode home, then had my wife drive me to the Er.

The trip to the local ER resulted in an ambulance ride to the next larger town with a trauma center.

No broken bones, no internal injuries, just two cuts, a number of bruises and about $6K in bills.

The bike wasn’t totaled, but I’m having to put money into it to make it right.

Yep, I’m paying the “Stupid Tax,” that make me Stupid Lucky, for shore.

I’ve been paying a company $20 extra per month for a year to white label the product. Did I ever check to see if the product was white labeled? Nope. I neglected to click the box to do this. In addition, I wasn’t even using the product at the time. I’m sure I could have paused the payments or cancelled the service altogether.

This mistake cost me a minimum of $240, and more like $480 if I’m honest.

I had to order a copy of my credit report to apply for my new apartment. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that when I ordered my report I was signing up for some credit monitoring service at the same time, and 30 days after I got my report I was charged $22 for this service. I promptly called to cancel and promise to not let my excitement for a sweet rental overshadow my need to read the fine print!

I have a note in my phone to cancel cable today since our roommates moved out. Yet I want to see the new season of Lucifer off the ease of a DVR…and I really don’t want to make the call…and I am going to come up with half a dozen more reasons to hold on until the end of Lucifer and Madame Secretary and Fresh Off the Boat, and just general DVR’ness…

Amazon prime membership allows for a one-week free trial period once a year. This allows a person to sign up and get free shipping and cancel after their order has been processed. I had done this once before already a year ago. I thought I would be clever and take advantage of this offer and save $10-$15 dollars on shipping on a large order. However, busy life got in the way; I ended up forgetting to cancel the subscription, and now am stuck paying for an annual membership that costed me 5x more than the money I thought I was saving. Not smart.

A couple of years ago I spent $250 on a Sons of Anarchy signed leather cutte. I’ve also spent hundreds more on autographed pictures, jewelry, and the DVD set. Love the show, but most of these things just got thrown into my closet when I got my own place. Not the best use of my money, especially with student loans and other debts to pay off!

Where in the world can you get a speeding ticket for only $40? I haven’t had one in years, but they were always over $150.

I’ve got a few recent stupid money mistakes…
1 – I spent $500 on an auto repair. I may have been able to do it myself if I had the time, so I don’t begrudge paying a little more. The real stupid part was not asking for the breakdown of the quote before agreeing to it. The quote included the cost of their warranty, which I never pay for. So there went $35.

2 – We went on vacation and rented a car for $225. We rented through Hotwire so couldn’t pick the company beforehand, and only afterward realized the company we rented from was off airport property. It was a huge hassle having to get to the other rental car place while traveling with 4 small children and I later learned we could have gotten a car for right around the same price from a rental company that was on airport property.

3 – My health insurance company sent us a book with parenting advice after our son was born. We already had the book, so I decided to sell it on Amazon. I sold it for $5 plus $3.99 shipping and it sold within a few days. After sellers fees and everything, Amazon sent me $4.85. I mailed the book out the cheapest way possible, but still paid $5.31. Somehow I sold a book and it cost me $0.46.

It was one of those parked photo enforcer thing vs an actual cop coming over to give it to me (which would probably have been more, although I could have sworn I was only going 3 or 4 miles over the limit….)

Yeah, so um…I lost about $40,000 over the course of about 4 years on a Chinese stock. I did the whole “buy low” thing as it kept going lower….and lower. In my prime of stupidity I would even listen to the conference calls (in broken English) and believed what they were saying. They were supposedly a snack food company that branched out into the energy drink market. Finally, after the company was delisted and it became a penny stock I finally sold out. When I met with my accountant to do my taxes let’s just say that was super, super embarrassing to actually see on paper what I had done. The lesson for me is (and what I’ll do with the $100 if I win) now I only invest in the S&P 500.

I thought I would be ‘cheap’ on a baby shower gift by just getting a few things. Well, those few things, a gift bag and tissue paper later, I somehow spent nearly $50 by the time I was at the register! I should have put something back but I was also on a time crunch and just went with it. I wanted to only spend around $20-$25 since I’m not super close with the baby mama (it was a shower for my cousin’s girlfriend) but spent nearly double. :(

So I usually pick one day out of the week (usually Sunday) to go through random GoFundMe accounts and donate a little to each campaign. Well last week I did this and hadn’t realized I completely miscalculated my bills and expenses. Also I have my accounts set up for auto pay, and so the charges for my bill and the GoFundMe donations went through and now I’ve got an overdraft fee to pay which I hate! But at least it was for a good cause which did make me feel better!

I’m Canadian and I bought a new unlocked phone while traveling, it was a great deal. Then I paid to have it set up with US service (also a great deal with Republic Wireless, awesome company) which was cheap and worked fabulously…where it all went wrong is that I waited before I put my old Canadian phone number on ‘vacation mode’. I was paranoid I would lose my old number, so I hesitated for 6 weeks- that cost me an extra $130…Whhhhyyyy did I wait??? Vacation mode was actually a great thing, costs only $10 a month and was sooo easy to do… and to undo. I will not hesitate like that again next time I travel!! Procrastination is financially painful…

Greatest recent mistake was buying a car. The old one needed about $6,000 in repairs and so we decided to trade it in. Being “wise” we chose a used car. We were only able to afford a car about three years newer but with considerably fewer miles. What we have kicked ourselves a bit since is that we could have:

1. Repaired the old car for about half what we paid for the newer one and it still might be going stron today (about two years later, or:

2. Purchased a brand new one one one of those zero interest deals. We could have easily made payments over the 36 months to retire the cost of the vehicle before the three years were up..

We will never know about those two choices since we rushed into the purchase of the replacement car. But we feel that we probably would have been better off than we now are.

I did not pay attention during my employer’s open enrollment in November. My plan was discontinued and I got defaulted to the HMO (not what I would have chosen as I have Type 1 Diabetes with ongoing prescriptions and doctor’s appointments). I am counting down the day until this year’s open enrollment. This year’s medical expenses are costing me a fortune.

I purchased an expensive facial kit ($350) hoping it would help fix scars and blemishes as the aesthetician said it would. It ended up making my skin worse. I packaged it back up and intended to return it.

6 months later, while cleaning out my closet I found the package. The office that sold it to me wouldn’t take it back, even though it worked opposite as advertised. I wrote it off as a stupid tax.

Invested my first $200K life savings at Chase Private Client…enduring high fee funds and management fees for an entire year before reading and discovering the boglehead way. Eventually switching everything to Vanguard. What a costly learning experience.

My friend recommended a video game rental service to me that’s only £9.99 a month and you can rent games whose value in the shops is £50-£60, and rent as much as you want once you’ve sent your previous game back… I started in January but have ended up having no time whatsoever to play any of the games, so I have currently paid £50 for the pleasure of having 3 video games in my house (old games, that I could probably get 2nd hand for £5 each) that I haven’t even looked at, never mind played..

when our daughter was born, she had some complications and was placed in intensive care for 3 days. Most of it was precautionary and fortunately, she came home with us in a few days. Over the next 6 months, we received all kinds of medical bills from the hospital, specialtists and from doctors we had never met. Every bill seemed to threaten to go to claims so I consolidated all my bills to one credit card. :( Worst financial decision I’ve ever made. She’s almost 7 years old and we’re still paying this credit card.

This one’s on behalf of my wife, but she wouldn’t mind at all for a shot at $100. When a guy from “Steaks and Seafood Gourmet Express” showed up at our door selling frozen “filet mignons” for a great deal because he “had to empty his truck by the end of the day”, she took the bait to the tune of $27. The steaks were nasty, and we figured out he had probably shrink wrapped the leftovers off the discount rack at the local grocery store. We actually reported it to the police, but nothing could make up for the hit to my wife’s self-esteem, especially after trying to make a frugal decision. When filet mignons are involved, there more than just money at steak :)

I loaned my daughter money I had set aside for retirement for undergraduate and graduate school and now she is working and refuses to pay me back. Really , really dumb!

Grandma told me a long time ago three basic rules to saving.
#1. Always keep your money in your name and your name only (failed on this one)
#2. Stash a bit of cash each and everyday of your life ( I did this but since I gave it away/ sorta still a fail)
#3. Young people can borrow for school older people can not borrow for retirement ( TOTAL FAIL)

I decided I could make some cash by selling my DVD collection on ebay (I stream everything, so they are just dust collectors now). Some of the DVDs sold for pretty cheap… 99 cents for some, but was charging about $1.50 for shipping because I could ship them from work for $1.37. I went out of town when some sold I asked my Fiance to ship 10 of the DVDs that had sold. I told him where to go and the rough shipping cost of each. He decided to go elsewhere and they charged him $10 per DVD to ship and he was too embarrassed to back out so I PAID for people to take the collection off my hands. Grrrrr

Rented a car on vacation 3rd day in rock hits windshield and cracks it. Of course I had declined the insurance coverage from the rental company. Then missed deadline to submit to my credit card company. End result out $650 for a windshield.

I bought the SAME shirt 3 times. I blame this one on mommy brain, but I literally went to the same store, 3 different times after my daughter was born, and saw this adorable shirt. I debated with myself about getting, ultimately deciding it would make my whale-like post baby physique look amazing, purchased and brought home. I legit forgot about it and went back and bought it again…and again! Then to top it off, I didn’t find the other two shirts (which “somehow” got lost in the mountainous pile of laundry) until the time to return them had lapsed. Needless to say, I will be in style for the rest of my life because I have a steady supply of identical shirts.

Was looking for a bike to ride around our new city that has parks by the rivers. Since we have a smaller house, I figured a folding commuter bike would be a good fit for me. They looked cute and I bought one on Ebay for 150.00. It’s still cute and fun to ride but the 20″ wheels mean I pedal twice as much to go the same distance as my husband’s regular sized bike. I should have just gotten a regular size bike at Walmart. Now I have this bike that I’ll have to try to sell and get another bike that’s $120 or $150.00. Bummed.

Parked my car in some rare, un-zoned free parking in our DC neighborhood late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. To be fair, I was exhausted as I had been up and going for almost 22 hours by this point and wasn’t maybe as observant of the new, temporary signage as I could have been. I went out tonight to get in said car…and it wasn’t there. Neither was there any other car parked in that block. I called my husband to confirm that was where we had parked the car. He says yes, and then casually mentions that a neighbor was walking around the area looking for her car as she knows that they were “moving” cars from that block to do some utility work. Well, moving is actually called towing where I am from and DC seems to agree. Tomorrow I will shell out $160 to get my car out of impound. Ehn, and chip in another $100 in lost billable time at work since the impound lot is only open during business hours. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Fortunately, we really only pay $15/year for our street parking. Divide the sum of the RRP fees over the 10 years I have lived in DC ($150) + $260 for this tow, which is $41/year for street parking. That makes me feel quite good that I haven’t been shelling out a whopping $175 PER MONTH!!!! to park in our apartment building’s garage. So…win?

I bought a new car when I was broke!! Then I sold it for a big loss to invest in GOLD!! Surprisingly, the gold when up in value and I bought a new House in 2007!! And the market crashed and I got stuck in the house!! I eventually, broke even and got smarter, and now I’m getting a head. Stupid Tax is costly, but necessary for financial growth.

I went grocery shopping and purposely bought some items that had Ibotta rebates (that were NOT on my list)….realized the next day I had to scan my items and receipt to get my Ibotta rebates—to realize I had THROWN OUT THE RECEIPT!
AND ALREADY TAKEN OUT THE GARBAGE SO I COULDN’T GO INTO THE GARBAGE LOOKING FOR IT! :(

Ok, This one happened just recently. When we pull into our garage I sometimes let me 7 yr. old sit on my lap and steer the car. It’s only about 50 yds and I control the gas and brake. This time she turned the wheel and did a great job going into the garage. She then got a little excited and threw it into park. No problem until…she turned the ignition key and pulled it out.
The problem is she didn’t turn the key all the way to park but only to the ACC position which runs the accessories. She then yanked it out. You’re not supposed to be able to remove it in that position but somehow she did…stripping the tumbler inside and making our vehicle inoperative.
I could remove the key but not turn the ignition. I ended up having to get it towed to the dealer the next day. They had lots of trouble with it and had to take the whole assembly out. Bottom line- $1,900 later I got the car back and she won’t be seeing any driver ed lessons for a long, long, time. Oh well.

I only see my wife once a month. We live hundreds of miles apart.
We don’t like it, and it’s not how we envisioned our future, but for
now, it is what it is. On our monthly visits we usually go out for lunch.
I found insulated food transport bags,and portable sectioned food
containers. We copied some fancy, quick & inexpensive recipes.
Instead of a restaurant we would take our lunch to the market, park,
greenhouse, by the tree shadowed pools at the walking gardens…
nice places to enjoy a quiet, private, (free!) and elegant lunch together.
The cost per meal? About the same price as the tip at the restaurant.

Planned it all out. A savings of $308/yr.

We then went to lunch at the restaurant.

UGH! Stupid!!

-“Mad” Max Speedwell

BTW… there is an old saying (about 3,500 years old):

“Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil
the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.”

It’s not the big, growling, charging bear that comes in and
destroys your vinyard (“…aww, c’mon honey. We can use
the flight lessons and a new Cessna to go and visit your
mother more often!”) You can easily see, and hear THAT
bear coming and know what to do! It’s the small, quiet…
almost un-noticeable foxes. Stealthy and without notice little
foxes (latte’, speeding ticket, impulse item at the supermarket
check-out) that destroy wealth! They oh, so quietly slip into
our lives, hide under the branches and leaves in our financial
vinyard, and we never even notice them (“Hey, back-off! That
magazine is only four bucks!”) and they quietly burrow below
the ground, gnaw on the financial roots that support our vinyard,
and the damage is never even seen. Then, one day, our leaves
are curling. They’re turning brown, the harvest is very light, and
the grapes are small. WHAT HAPPENED?? Next year, the vines
are dead, and the vintage lost.

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Disclaimer

I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page